The DOJ decisions are consistent with actions against consolidations across industries, according to the Guardian, such as wireless companies AT&T and T-Mobile in 2011 and oil field servicers Halliburton and Baker Hughes this year. But concerns about safeguarding competition under the Affordable Care Act seem paramount, since a major aim of the law was to provide more insurance choices.

Government attorneys said that these companies “compete to sell health insurance on the public exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act” which “benefits low- and moderate-income individuals and families who buy insurance on the public exchanges. The merger would end this rivalry and deny consumers its benefits.”


The companies responded in differing ways. Aetna, Humana, Anthem vowed to contest the government’s lawsuit, while Cigna said that it was “evaluating its options” under the merger agreement. Litigation against the decisions could last months, said Bloomberg, further dragging out deals revealed about a year ago.

Antitrust law observers cited in The Guardian consider it unlikely that such large scale deals will be approved, “at least under this administration” — or a Clinton presidency, whose campaign “applauded” the DOJ decision — though none would guess how a Trump leadership would respond. In the shorter term, market watchers like Fortune expect Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, and Humana to go after smaller acquisitions and concentrate on what Aetna CEO called “organic growth” if these transactions fail.

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